east fife 2 Agnew (56, pen 85) stenhousemuir 0

East Fife were made to grind out this win at Bayview against a stuffy Stenny side.

The Methil men started well and had a couple of early chances.

Anton Dowds screwed his effort wide from six yards when set up by Chris Duggan before Danny Denholm’s solo effort saw him fire past the post.

East Fife continued to press and Denholm had a decent penalty shout snubbed when he was hauled down in the box.

It was all East Fife and the Warriors had to defend for large periods of the first half.

Former Arbroath winger Denholm was causing all sorts of problems for the visitors and he again went close to breaking the deadlock.

It took a good half an hour for Stenny to ask any questions of their hosts but when they did manage to break into the East Fife box Mark McGuigan squandered his chance from close range.

It was going to take something special to open the scoring in a game which was short on clear-cut chances.

And that’s just what happened, Denholm setting up Scott Agnew on the edge of the box with the midfielder curling in a sublime effort.

Stenny responded well and were almost level straight away but McGuigan’s shot came back off the post.

Losing the opening goal seemed to spark the visitors into life, and they again went close through a long-range Mark Munro drive.

But the Fifers wrapped up the points with five minutes to go when Agnew scored his second of the game from the penalty spot after David Marsh had fouled Aaron Dunsmore.